Laura Carstensen's blog: WorkLife Central 2016 survey

I had my first child in 1988, a one year qualified solicitor at Slaughter and May. It felt like pretty uncharted territory. I was ambitious to become a partner and I also knew that, at that time, no woman ever had, let alone a woman with a family. I chose to take two weeks maternity leave. To be honest I had no idea what the 'right' amount of time would be and I suppose I was trying to signal my continuing ambition. In retrospect of course I can't think how I managed it. My second son came along eighteen months later and my daughter a little less than that after him. Three children under three. As far as I recall I had taken around three months maternity leave all told. I should emphasise that the pressure came not from the firm but from myself, interpreting what I took to be the cultural imperatives of the time and place. And I think I read it pretty much right.  (I note that only a third of respondents in the 2016 WorkLife Central annual survey said they were encouraged to take their full entitlement of parental leave, with 50% stating their leave was ‘accepted’).

By the time my fourth child was born I had recently and unexpectedly become a single parent but to my firm's great credit they never missed a beat in voting me into partnership whilst I was a pregnant, unmarried (much less common then than now) and single parent of four. If I am ever feeling over-worked I have only to remind myself what life was like as a Partner and single mother of four and everything else fades into insignificance. Sleep became a rare commodity and I got good at compartmentalising simply in order to function.

In due course my lovely husband came along, life got a lot easier and two more children followed. By the time I retired from the partnership in 2005 to pursue my present plural career outside the law I had had a pretty good experience over almost twenty years of what it is like to combine a City career with parenthood. It was extremely hard. I imagine it still is. There are upsides: one must always remember that to have a rewarding career is a privilege that many do not enjoy, as much as having a family is - having both and striking any kind of livable balance is the jackpot! City careers provide the wherewithal to fund family life beyond most people's dreams. BUT it is tough. Reading the results of the survey I realised how little the fundamentals have changed.

Establishing a work/life balance and maintaining a career trajectory were the top-two key challenges identified. Now that may never go away entirely but employers can choose to create cultures and policies which celebrate families and nurture the careers of City parents, a large part of the talent pool crucial to the City's continuing pre-eminence.  The survey findings should spur them to do so.

Laura Carstensen has held board level leadership roles in the City, in business and in public service in a career spanning 30 years. She was a partner in Slaughter and May for many years and subsequent to leaving the City has held a number of Ministerial appointments including as Deputy Chairman of the Competition Commission and, currently, as a Commissioner of the Equality & Human Rights Commission and non-executive Director of NHS Improvement. She is non-executive Chairman of AIM 100 listed Park Group plc and a non-executive Director and Chair of the Values & Ethics Committee of The Co-operative Bank plc.

In 2009 the national charity Working Families honoured her as one of their Pioneers  "for her leadership in the City with the City Parents At Work network and for making possible the first research on work-life balance in the City, on which much of Working Families’ culture change work has been based".

The WorkLife Central survey results can be found at: http://www.WORKLIFECENTRAL.COM/News/WorkLife Central-survey-results-Jun-2016.htm.